Amazon Will Pay You $5,000 to Quit Your Job • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon Will Pay You $5,000 to Quit Your Job

#41

Post by vidarh » Fri, Apr 11, 2014, 2:37 PM UTC

dingaling wrote: post #30

jordn wrote: post #4

The first (and stated) effect of this policy is to weed out the unmotivated employees. However, Dan Ariely has explained that the secondary effect is potentially more powerful. For those that choose to stay, they will forever live with their past action of having turned down lots of money to work there. So, when they're having a crappy day and hating their job, they're probably thinking "why didn't I take the money a…

> For those that choose to stay, they will forever live with their past action of having turned down lots of money to work there. $5,000 isn't really lots of money ; it's probably about six months of mortgage payments in an average town. On a 25-year mortgage that doesn't make much of a dent. Better to keep grumbling, keep earning and keep a roof over the family.

You can trigger compliance effects with a can of soda. Of course there needs to be a correspondence in magnitude, but it's not really about the absolute amounts.

Re: Amazon Will Pay You $5,000 to Quit Your Job

#42

Post by phamilton » Fri, Apr 11, 2014, 2:39 PM UTC

afterburner wrote: post #14

Although nobody else seems to have mentioned it, this sounds to me like they are trying to avoid employees being dissatisfied but sticking around in order to get severance pay. Obviously if you quit voluntarily, no severance pay, but Amazon gives you a bit of money anyways (much less than severance pay), so that maybe you won't stick around longer than is good for either of you.

Is it really much less? Last time I was let go I was given less than $5000 severance pay, and that was as a developer.

Re: Amazon Will Pay You $5,000 to Quit Your Job

#43

Post by joosters » Fri, Apr 11, 2014, 2:40 PM UTC

fecak wrote: post #36

sixothree wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm guessing for many people at amazon it might be two months salary.

$2500 a month is 30K. The average warehouse worker at Amazon is around $25K (1), so the temptation might be there for them. For engineers, that amount is not likely to be considered. 1 - http://money.cnn.com/2013/07/30/news/companies/amazon-wareho...

n.b. the vast majority of Amazon warehouse workers are not actually employed by Amazon; it is unlikely that they ever get these offers.

Re: Amazon Will Pay You $5,000 to Quit Your Job

#44

Post by vidarh » Fri, Apr 11, 2014, 2:40 PM UTC

bobjordan wrote: post #38

About 5 years ago during worst of the downturn, I took $20,000 USD option our consulting firm gave and voluntarily quit a $120,000 base salary job. At the time, I thought that job sucked pretty bad and was looking for an out anyhow. I've been an entrepreneur ever since. No quick success story to tell - I've been bootstrapping for 5 years in China and it's been hard. But I've been happier overall focusing everyday on…

As much as the the $1bn exits are revered, 5 yars to $1m USD revenues IS quick success. Most who start a company will never get to that kind of revenue, and of the ones that do, many will take far longer. It's an impressive feat.

Re: Amazon Will Pay You $5,000 to Quit Your Job

#45

Post by EC1 » Fri, Apr 11, 2014, 2:42 PM UTC

bobjordan wrote: post #38

About 5 years ago during worst of the downturn, I took $20,000 USD option our consulting firm gave and voluntarily quit a $120,000 base salary job. At the time, I thought that job sucked pretty bad and was looking for an out anyhow. I've been an entrepreneur ever since. No quick success story to tell - I've been bootstrapping for 5 years in China and it's been hard. But I've been happier overall focusing everyday on…

What do you do? Why China?

Re: Amazon Will Pay You $5,000 to Quit Your Job

#46

Post by sharkweek » Fri, Apr 11, 2014, 2:48 PM UTC

jere wrote: post #27

jordn wrote: post #4

The first (and stated) effect of this policy is to weed out the unmotivated employees. However, Dan Ariely has explained that the secondary effect is potentially more powerful. For those that choose to stay, they will forever live with their past action of having turned down lots of money to work there. So, when they're having a crappy day and hating their job, they're probably thinking "why didn't I take the money a…

Your theory might explain why the offer is only made once a year. Most likely, your bad day isn't going to line up with the availability of the offer. If it was always on offer, you might be more inclined to jump ship impulsively.

I'm curious about the opposite -- I'm assuming it likely keeps dead weight around longer too; someone who isn't happy or motivated, waiting around for a few months for the 5k bonus for leaving.

Re: Amazon Will Pay You $5,000 to Quit Your Job

#47

Post by lmm » Fri, Apr 11, 2014, 2:50 PM UTC

judk wrote: post #26

jordn wrote: post #4

The first (and stated) effect of this policy is to weed out the unmotivated employees. However, Dan Ariely has explained that the secondary effect is potentially more powerful. For those that choose to stay, they will forever live with their past action of having turned down lots of money to work there. So, when they're having a crappy day and hating their job, they're probably thinking "why didn't I take the money a…

That's horrible. So you have miserable people doing unmotivated work because they think they are stuck here because they passes up $5 to be here. Or because taking the money makes the feel guilty, but quitting and not taking it makes them feel stupid, so they just plod along feeling angry.

No, that's not how it works. If it was like that, that would make their teams less productive and Amazon wouldn't do it.

Re: Amazon Will Pay You $5,000 to Quit Your Job

#48

Post by nevir » Fri, Apr 11, 2014, 2:54 PM UTC

jordn wrote: post #13

tgb wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recall hearing about that for Zappos, but here the offer is repeated every year. Doesn't that ruin the effect - you know you can get (potentially even more) by quitting in a few months? And if it's only offered at certain times of the year, then there'll be a bunch of people hanging on until the offer comes around again.

Well, I suspect there will be people postponing quitting for a few months just so they can cash out with the offer. That's undesirable for Amazon. But I doubt you'd have people staying in a job they dislike for another year just to get an extra $1k when they do quit. Also you'll have compounded another year of turning down cash to work there so the cognitive dissonance might be even stronger.

That's desirable for Amazon, too.

This program gives them some control over when someone is likely to quit. I.e. not in the middle of a holiday rush.

Re: Amazon Will Pay You $5,000 to Quit Your Job

#49

Post by ritchiea » Fri, Apr 11, 2014, 2:55 PM UTC

This is genius. Many people feel stuck in jobs they don't like for financial reasons. They're surely not as productive as they could be if they were happier. Providing even a small bit of assistance to help them out the door helps both sides. Employees don't feel trapped and employers don't have to wonder if their employee is just have a rough time or if he/she does not want to be there any longer.

Not to mention, as another commenter pointed out [1], once you decline the money you will look back and remember you made the decision to stay when presented an opportunity to leave.

1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7572688

Re: Amazon Will Pay You $5,000 to Quit Your Job

#50

Post by afterburner » Fri, Apr 11, 2014, 2:57 PM UTC

phamilton wrote: post #42

afterburner wrote: post #14

Although nobody else seems to have mentioned it, this sounds to me like they are trying to avoid employees being dissatisfied but sticking around in order to get severance pay. Obviously if you quit voluntarily, no severance pay, but Amazon gives you a bit of money anyways (much less than severance pay), so that maybe you won't stick around longer than is good for either of you.

Is it really much less? Last time I was let go I was given less than $5000 severance pay, and that was as a developer.

Hmm, I'm in Canada, and while the legal minimum here probably isn't much higher than the US, maybe companies tend to offer more. Could just be what I've heard of in the largish engineering companies I've been in.